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Constance Hatchaway
Constance Hatchaway, better known as The Black Widow Bride, is one of the ghostly characters within The Haunted Mansion, which appears in Disneyland in California, Walt Disney World in Florida, and Tokyo Disneyland. She is arguably the most villainous and/or most dangerous presence on the ride, being the ghost of a bride with a murderous past life. She is a revamped version of the original Bride character that was introduced in 2006. Also in 2006, the Attic area she can be found in was also redesigned to reflect the new character interpretation and darker tone. Her performance model is Julia Lee, but she is voiced by Kat Cressida. Redesign The original Attic area feature black lights and blast up ghosts that would occasionally spring out to scare visitors. The Bride would be swaying in the corner with a beating red heart seen within her. In May 2006, the Bride (now named Constance Hatchaway) and the Attic were redesigned to include new effects and introduce a darker storyline. This included scattered and stacked wedding gifts along with portraits of the redesigned Bride and her husbands. However, in each portrait, the husband's head would disappear and the Bride's voice would admit to beheading them. The Doom Buggies would then head for the window, where the Bride would be standing, reciting her wedding vows while a hatchet materialized and vanished in her hands. The Doom Buggy then goes out the window to the Graveyard, implying escaping from the ghost. Biography Past While her full backstory purposefully remains a mystery, parts of it are known. Constance Hatchaway was a beautiful woman who many men fell in love with. However, Constance herself was a gold digging seductress who wished to obtain the fortunes of wealthy men. She accomplished this by marrying several wealthy and powerful men, including bankers, businessmen, farmers, and barons. However, she would then proceed to behead them with her hatchet and inherit all of their wealth. Despite her crimes, she was never punished (likely due to lack of evidence), though the public did dub her "The Black Widow Bride". Her husbands were: *Ambrose Harper: The naive but good intentioned son of successful farmers (married in 1869) *Frank Banks An eastern banker and community pillar (married in 1872) *The Marquis de Doome A foreign diplomat with a military past (married in 1874) *Reginald Caine A celebrated railroad baron, gambler and world renowned gourmand (married in 1875) *George Hightower A (possible) relative of the wealthy hotel owner/explorer Harrison Hightower III (married in 1877) It was her final husband who was one of the many owners of the titular mansion. After murdering Hightower, Constance decided that she was satisfied with the wealth she had accumulated and settled down in her newly inherited mansion. She died later of unknown causes, though most speculate that it was old age. The Haunted Mansion After her death, Constance's spirit became enveloped by her sadistic, homicidal side. She became a permanent resident of the mansion's Attic, standing among her hordes of past wedding gifts and admitting to her crimes. She also became hostile towards any living being that came into the attic, brandishing her hatchet while cryptically repeating her wedding vows. In the ride, the visitors escape her out the window. Other theories say that the evil bride actually kills the guest and flings them into the graveyard, or the guest flings themselves off the balcony because they don't want to die to the bride. Before the attic, an elderly Constance can be seen sitting on George Hightower's gravestone in the Stretching Portrait Room. In the newer interactive queue, a realistic looking engagement ring is engraved into the ground. This was put into the queue as in times past, a ring-looking scar was found at the mansion's exit, and fans speculated that it belonged to Constance Hatchaway. Some stories say that she threw into the ground in some kind of rage, perhaps because she let the guests escape outside of the window. Other Appearances ''The Haunted Mansion'' Comic Book Series Constance is a minor villain in the comic book series The Haunted Mansion by Slave Labor Graphics, which ran for seven issues from 2006 to 2007. She only appears in the first issue. ''The Haunted Mansion: The Black Widow Bride'' Constance reappears as the main antagonist of the online game based off the ride. Here, the player must guide the 998 other ghosts, including Constance's former husbands, to safety from her. ''Epic Mickey'' In the video game Epic Mickey, Horace Horsecollar asks Mickey Mouse to help him solve a mystery in the Lonesome Manor, another haunted mansion. Here, he wants to find evidence that the former mistress of the manor, Constance Hatchaway, killed her previous husbands, implying that Lonesome Manor either belonged to one of Constance's husbands or that it was a parody of the original Haunted Mansion with a different name. Her hatchet is found by Horace in the Library. ''Kinect Disneyland Adventures'' Constance appears as the final boss in the Haunted Mansion minigame. ''Disney Kingdoms'' Constance appears as a major antagonist in the Haunted Mansion miniseries of the 2016 comic book series Disney Kingdoms by Marvel Comics. Here, she tries to get the main protagonist Danny Crowe to marry her, claiming she committed her past crimes simply because she loved weddings. It is also revealed that because she was one of the few to actually die on the property, she has a certain authority and power on the grounds; most notably, the ability to permanently destroy other ghosts by decapitating them with her spectral hatchet. ''Ghost Post'' Though Constance never makes a direct appearance in the Ghost Post interactive game, her presence is felt in the greater story. A wedding invitation (for her marriage to the the Marquis de Doome) was among the first set of artifacts sent to players, which when chilled transformed into invitation to the diplomat's funeral. She is mentioned in a conversation heard between the Hitchhiking Ghosts over the Phantom Radio (with Gus wildly swinging around a hatchet as they do). It is also very heavily implied that Constance is behind the "Aunt Agony" advice section of the Grim Gazette, since the author makes frequent allusions to having had multiple husbands who died under unusual circumstances. ''Disney Crossy Road'' Constance was one of the rarer unlockable characters in a brief weekend challenge. ''Disney Emoji Blitz'' The Bride is an unlockable emoji character in the mobile game, whose power up feature is to eliminate a horizontal row of emojis from the game board with a sweep of her axe. Personality While her personality in life is never fully revealed, it can be assumed that she was greedy and cold towards her victims. It is unknown if she felt any remorse, but due to her repeated murders, it is highly unlikely. Somewhere down the line, she began to enjoy the killings and became a sadist, openly loving killing her husbands. After death, her ghost was completely consumed by her murderous side, as she gleefully admits to her murders and threatens to kill the visitors. Appearance In the photos found in the Attic, Constance (in life), was a beautiful woman with pale skin and blonde hair. In her later years, her hair became grey and her stature shrunk. As a ghost, Constance can be seen in her wedding dress holding a hatchet. Her entire body and clothing is blue and opaque, and she has a permanent evil grin on her face. Trivia *Constance replaced the "Beating Heart" Bride in 2006 in Anaheim, CA and in 2007 in Orlando, Florida. *It is heavily implied that the old woman seen in a portrait in the Stretching Room is actually Constance which was painted later in her life, though an early script for the attraction named this character "Abigale Patecleaver;" it has been suggested that this was an alias chosen by Constance to marry one (or several) of her husbands to avoid him/them finding out that she'd already been married before. * Constance appears in a short stage show at the Disney Parks that was held as a hard ticket event for the Haunted Mansion's 40th anniversary. The show was about her demise and shed some light upon the subject, but was gleefully inconsistent with the Stretching Portrait, since it featured her dying pretty young. It is generally considered non-canonical due to this. * When deciphered, her name means "Constantly Hatching Away", hatching referring to the use of Constance's hatchet. Gallery ' Lost Changing Portrait 5.png|Concept-art by Marc Davis of a Changing Portrait of an axe-murderess, which served as inspiration for Constance's update as the Attic bride. Black widow bride sitting on top of George's tombstone model sample.jpg|The Stretching Portrait in which Constance originally appeared. Hm-constance-web.jpg|Constance as the ghost of the Attic. Constance plush.jpg|Constance in her plush form (Beanbag verison of her with a bouquet and a hatchet included) Constance Minnie Mouse pin.jpg|Pin of Minnie Mouse as Constance. Minnie Mouse as Constance with Mickey Mouse as George.jpg|Promotional art of Minnie Mouse as Constance Frank with Constance with the Love Forever Frank and Constance banner overhead.jpg|Constance with Frank Reginald with Constance (2).jpg|Constance with Reginald Marquis de Doom with Constance.jpg|Constance with the Marquis De Doome. ConstanceHatchaway.png|Constance about to kill Danny Crowe in the Marvel comics. ' Category:Portraits Category:Characters Category:Brides Category:Females Category:Ghosts Category:Deceased Characters Category:Undead Category:Villains Category:Heroes Category:Heroines